Race

Stephen Hopkins' Race is a movie that doesn't exactly do any one thing great, but it does enough right that I am recommending it.  It's a fairly standard biopic that sands off some of the rough edges of the story of Jesse Owens, in order to create a more audience pleasing movie.  However, for what it is, the movie is well made, and it features two fine lead performances in Stephan James (as Owens), and a strong dramatic turn from Saturday Night Live's Jason Sudeikis. 

A lot of the film's success hinges on Stephan James, and his portrayal of Owens as a vulnerable and relatable figure.  The movie doesn't play up the racial issues that he went through at the time as much as you would think.  It's still there, but it's not the main focus of the film.  Owens is seen as a man driven to succeed.  He has to be, because as the film kicks off, he has a lot riding on him succeeding.  He's the first in his family to go to college, and is going to Ohio State University as a rising young track star who has already made a name for himself.  Not only that, but he has a woman back home (Shanice Banton) that he wants to marry one day, and they already have had a daughter together, so he wants to provide for his future family.  When he arrives at college in 1933, there are some people who give him looks, or complain when he wants to use the showers at the same time as them.  But, for the most part, this part of Owens' life is mostly glossed over.

What Race does choose to focus on is the relationship he builds with his coach Larry Snyder (Sudeikis), a former athlete himself who fell short of his goals, and is now known for leading the school's track team to three straight losing years, and for his heavy drinking.  At first Larry sees Owens as a cocky young upstart, a "natural" who has gotten a lot of hype and attention, but most likely won't have the guts to go all the way.  Owens proves him wrong, and when he starts seeing what the kid can do, the two form first a professional relationship, and then a real friendship that has nothing to do with helping the team advance to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.  This leads into the film's main subplot, which covers the U.S. possibly boycotting the '36 Summer Games, due to Adolph Hitler's rise in Germany.  Here, we get Jeremy Irons as Avery Brundage, the man sent to Berlin to make demands that Germany must meet if the U.S. is to participate in the Olympics.  This leads to Avery having to clash with Hitler's lead propaganda director, Josef Goebbles (Barnaby Metschurat).  

Just as the issue of the racism that Owens has to deal with, the movie somewhat glosses over what is really going on in Germany.  We only see it once (when Avery first arrives, and is being driven down the streets of Berlin), but outside of that, this movie is centered squarely on his accomplishments during the Games, and what it meant to both America and Germany.  It's uplifting for sure, and the sports scenes are shot well.  James performs his running scenes well, which is obviously key to the role.  If it looked like he wasn't fast enough, or if it were an obvious double, the movie would have been dead on arrival.  He not only gives us a convincing dramatic performance, but he also performs well athletically in the part.  And while the movie is obviously whitewashed, it does not lionize the man or make him flawless.  He has his moments of weakness and doubt, and there are some nice scenes between Owens and Coach Snyder about how to overcome them.

But at a far too long running time of two hours and fifteen minutes, this movie really should have and could have gone into more depth about the man.  We learn little about his relationships, both with his family (especially his father, which the movie keeps on hinting at some dramatic tension, but never really delivers), and with his eventual wife and daughter.  Mrs. Owens pretty plays the dutiful and supportive spouse, and we never really get a true sense of their relationship.  We learn at the end of the film that they remained married until Owens passed away in 1980, and that they had more children over the years.  Obviously, there was much more to their story than that.  There is also another subplot about a female German filmmaker who is hired to make a propaganda documentary about the Games, and when Owens starts winning, Goebbles demands that the camera stop filming, but she defies him and keeps on filming anyway.  This is an interesting story, one that is probably worthy of its own film.  Here, it's treated almost as a side event, and probably needed more time to truly stand out.

Race is an imperfect film, and probably could have been a lot better.  But, that's not what I'm here to judge.  I'm here to report on the movie that was made, and while I have some issues, I was entertained for the most part.  Owens' accomplishments are probably not as well known by today's youth as it was in the past, so the movie does at least serve an important role, and will hopefully inspire people to look into his real story.  It may not be exactly the movie I was hoping for, but for what it is, it does work.

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